Some very basic first impressions:The atmosphere is beautiful. I don't usually comment on atmosphere in Atelier games, but it's really noteworthy here.I'm not sure how the lore will play out (the Arland series simply gave you "machines" and told you to live with it, while some of the older games were more developed), but it seems on the "more developed" side right from the start, giving you a background on the town you're in and the "land" of Dusk. From a graphical perspective, it's a mixed bag. Obviously the models are beautiful and well detailed, and the animations are smooth, but the backgrounds still need some work. They're better looking than Rorona's, but they still feel low budget.As stated above, it's not super sweet and sugary and takes a tone more similar to the older games. This is very refreshing.I think Ayesha as a main character has the best English voice of the female main characters, but really now. She's 17. Does every 17 year-old girl you know have a high pitched voice like someone 5 years her junior? Actually, even my 12 year-old cousin has a deeper voice than she does (but she also has a deeper voice than I do, so I suppose that's not saying much).I don't think I need to mention the music beyond "it's good." It's GUST.

Eh, I find EO to be a pretty easy for a game/series in this genre in general and I'd consider it a nice entry point because of that. I'm not sure if I agree with 4 being the easiest overall during the beginning, but later on it might well be simply because every class becomes powerful very quickly.

For now I'm using Land/Rune, Fort/Dancer, Night/Bushi, Arcanist/Medic, Sniper/Arcanist

Later on I may turn my Sniper into more of a physical/link beast with Sniper/Dancer, but for now my Sniper is used primarily for Criticals, ignoring enemy defense, Binds, and Chase Binds while my Arcanist helps the Night land status effects and assists the Sniper with Chase Binds.

Unfortunately, I've noticed this game has the same issue as the other EOs. That is - after the first stratum or two it becomes much easier. The difficulty just doesn't remain consistent and you get stronger much more quickly than your enemies and the area "tricks" do. I'm glad they did away with the Royal/Prince/Princess from EO3 though, it was just ridiculously unbalanced.

Eh...Maybe I'll actually be able to get into this version. I felt DeSu 2 lacked the feeling of danger and tenseness that the first had and, because of it, it couldn't hold my interest. It's one of those games that I'd really like to like, especially given I loved DeSu 1. I'm definitely willing to give it another shot.

I have to admit, a lack of website entirely is bad, even for niche publisher standards. I mean, Hakuoki: Warriors of the Shinsegumi was released last week, and how many of you knew about that? But at least Aksys has a website and sends out promotional materials for it.

NISA doesn't really advertise either, outside of their Prinny Bombs, which are regularly sent out.

I read recently from somewhere that it seems more like TemcoKoei spends most of their manpower and effort in the European market, where in North America they only have a few select employees - enough to make sure games release and are distributed properly. I'd compare it to NISA's presence in Europe. Not that I have any confirmation of this.

Honestly, I worry for GUST under TK, and not only because they mentioned social games.

I think Chaos should look sinister, that's part of their leit motif. We're strong. Challenge us and die.

Not necessarily. Look at games like Raidou 2, where Chaos represents self-determination, or even Devil Survivor, where Yuzu's path is one of the most chaotically-aligned choices. In other cases it's more "survival of the fittest," which isn't inherently bad or even hostile.

I like the new Shuffle Time a lot, but it makes the game much easier because it's so easy to abuse. But yes, it's nice because it lets you build up your favorite Personae to be good and long-lasting. I know I'm a fan of some of the weaker Persona and I plan on building them up for end-game use, despite lacking the full, easy invincibility of a Persona like Helel.

I know what happens with Marie, and I doubt it will make me like her any more. She's just too much of, er, a fanfiction character for me to like her. And I mean this literally, as I have seen fanfiction characters identical to her, with almost the exact same thing happening to their character.

And I play on Hard. I think the lack of difficulty is because I've played the original multiple times now compounded by the new additions. It will definitely be noticeable for those who have experience with the game. Given I'm going for the new ending on my first run, I'll try Very Hard on my NG+. Maybe that will satisfy me a bit more.

Some non-spoiler thoughts on changed content for previous players now that I've hit November.

- Some of the new scenes are clever (the "reenactment of the birth of Venus"), others are pretty horrible (the entire Junes band section).- I'm pleasantly surprised at how many new scenes or changed scenes there are. Some of the changes are small, but one or two were very important.- Nope, even at Rank 10 Marie still isn't likeable or interesting. This coming from someone who almost always likes Tsundere characters.- Dungeons are easier now, due to having earlier access to Invigorate-type skills (ie, you can get Invigorate 2 below level 20). You can start buying Mage's Marks once you have access to the Sauna. This is compounded by the new Shuffle Time, which lets you upgrade your abilities via picking the Magician Arcana. That Invigorate 2 can turn into Invigorate 3 without much effort, and you can get early access to many spells.- The difficulty balance is still off, unfortunately. The most difficult parts of the game are the first two dungeons and everything is downhill from there. Like the above, this is compounded by new features. Your non-MCs are stronger in Golden and have new abilities, Yukiko gets the Mudoon-series, for example, making battles easier than ever before.- There's a ton more to do than in vanilla. A first-run max S.Link is much pickier than before, especially if you want to do everything.- While not a huge deal, they've rearranged Arcana of certain Personae because they added Jester and Aeon. This threw me off a few times, so just watch out for it.

Was this game badly received in Japan? Because from the looks alone it does seem pretty nice but I admit I haven't seen much besides some videos where most of them were an anime cutscene and very little gameplay.

I've read on multiple sites that it was nominated for Japan's "worst game of the year" award. I'm not sure the original source, but that rumor seems rather widespread.

I don't know, I don't think I'm fond of how they're "showcasing" Chaos on the cover. SMT is usually pretty good with keeping to the more traditional D&D alignments, where Chaos represents freedom and choice, but Chaos is looking pretty sinister in the art. I can't help but feel there's some bias involved.

Of course, cover art isn't always representative of the game, so maybe it's just there to look cool.